


Infinity on High

by artsyongallifrey



Series: Codename Nightmare [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Marvel Universe, Post-Thor: The Dark World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 06:10:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10299347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyongallifrey/pseuds/artsyongallifrey
Summary: Merida (OC), a disgraced SHIELD agent and extremely powerful telepath, is hiding out in London during the events of Thor: The Dark World. After the battle, she confronts Thor and demands to know why he continues to bring destruction on the planet he swore to protect.Conversations without quotations are telepathic.Takes place within the MCU. New works will be published with each of the films as they are released.





	

Director Fury stormed into a media lab. “Get me a visual on Greenwich. I want eyes and ears all over the damn place.”  
Agents scrambled to pull up news coverage and security footage of the city. Field agents were describing the scene over comms units and video chats. The quiet little lab was now a bustling center of information on an alien attack. A vessel the size of a skyscraper had landed in the city. Thor was there, fighting off aliens with the help of his girlfriend Jane Foster.  
Get your agents out of the city.  
“Excuse me?” Fury demanded.  
“Sir?” asked an agent.  
Right now. Get them out.  
Fury turned to the agent sitting next to where he was standing. “Whatever the hell that is, it’s beyond us. Get our people out of there.”  
“Yes, sir.”  
“I hope you’re not pulling my leg here,” he muttered to the voice in his head.  
Not this time.  
“Sir, look at this!” called another agent.  
Fury glanced at the computer. A figure dressed in black with massive wings flew across the screen. “That better not be who I think it is.”  
“I’m running a scan now, sir,” she said. A window blinked on the screen with the scan results.  
“Well?”  
“It’s a seventy-eight percent match for the Nightmare Agent, sir.”  
Leave me alone!  
“I want all agents out of Greenwich now!”  
“But, sir, orders are—”  
“I don’t give a fuck about orders. Our people are out there and I want them to make it out alive. I do not want our agents to engage with her. She is dangerous.”  
“Yes, sir.” She turned back to her computer screen. “On the Director’s orders, all agents are to get out of Greenwich, now. Do not engage the Nightmare. Repeat. Do not engage the Nightmare,” she said into her earpiece.  
Fury watched the agents bustling around him. “I’m gonna lose my job over this one,” he muttered to himself.

This was the most terrifying attack on Earth yet. That would be saying something, given everything that had happened in New York the year before. Merida was only catching bits of information on what exactly had caused the attack. Something about Dark Elves and using the Ether to destroy the universe during the Convergence. Which was happening right now.  
Flying around the Elves’ ship, Merida could see Thor fighting Malekith while Jane Foster and her team were scrambling to keep the situation under control. She perched on top of the ship, just out of sight of the people below. A stray elf disintegrated with a snap of her fingers. She could see a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents running away from the scene and smiled to herself, relieved that Fury had finally listened to her. Only one was still there.  
Merida sighed in frustration. You’ve got a deserter, Nick.  
Who?  
Harrison Willis. He has every intention of defying orders. Merida waited for a response, occasionally smiting an elf that ran too far from the scene. She could hear Fury’s thoughts as he barked commands to get Willis’s attention. Ten more seconds and I will kill him.  
Don’t you fucking—  
Eight…  
Agent!  
Six… five… four… She saw an elf heading for Willis and was about to intervene when the agent put his hands in the air in surrender. She stopped counting down to listen to them.  
“I can help you.”  
“We do not need your help, Midguardian. We will destroy your world to make way for ours.”  
“But you do need more intelligence, right? I can do that.”  
“You’re kidding me,” Merida complained as she swooped down from the ship. She smote the elf just before she landed in front of Willis. “You shouldn’t try to betray humanity when a Class Seven mutant is nearby,” she said in her thick Scottish accent.  
Willis backed away. “You… you’re the Nightmare Agent!”  
“The one and only. Now tell me,” she said, catching him in a force field, “why are you trying to sell out humanity?”  
“You would know, wouldn’t you? You’re the one that abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D.”  
Merida tilted her head as her black, feathered wings rose behind her in anger. “I never abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D,” she said through clenched teeth. Something was protecting his thoughts from her, but she caught one word. “What’s Hydra got to do with this?”  
“My answer will die with me!” he nearly shouted as she pushed the air out the force field.  
“Aren’t you just adorable.” She pushed out more air. His lips were starting to turn blue. “Tell me. Now.”  
“Never,” he rasped.  
“Fuck you very much, then,” she said, snapping his neck with a turn of her wrist. “I got enough from your stupid self, anyway.”  
Agent!  
An alien got the bastard. Don’t worry about it.

 

Curled up on her couch with her fingers pressed to her temples, Merida ran through the events of the day in her head. There had been too much to process at once, what with the Dark Elves invading and Thor’s family drama and Agent Willis’ betrayal. That last bit was especially strange to her. She remembered taking down Hydra after World War II. The only remaining member of Hydra after the war was Zola, and, as the only telepath working for S.H.I.E.L.D., she had cleared him herself.  
“Lemurian Star” and “Hydra’s secret” were the only words she’d caught from Willis. She knew the first was a ship for launching satellites but couldn’t see how the two were connected. The satellites were used for controlling helicarriers, but playing pirates didn’t strike her as something Hydra would do.  
She pushed it to the back of her mind and focused on the invasion. The Ether was a lot like the Tesseract in its power. They had to be connected somehow. Both of them were like nothing she’d seen on Earth.  
The woman paced across her apartment floor. Something about the Ether seemed familiar to her. She’d heard Thor call it the Reality Stone and caught something else in his head about Infinity Stones. The Ether must be one of them. Perhaps she could find a way to Asgard and find out more about what was going on.  
She opened a window and felt the breeze in her long, red hair. Today was a good day to fly.  
After shutting the window, she jogged upstairs to the roof of her building and perched on the edge. She leaned forward, just enough for her weight to pull her down from the edge and plummet to the ground. Her wings formed between her shoulder blades and grew to full size just in time for her to pull herself into the air before she could hit the pavement.

“You are unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”  
“So is that good or bad?” Merida asked, then by the name of River.  
The man in the wheelchair leaned forward, his palms pressed together in contemplation. “I think… it’s new. New is neither good nor bad.”  
“Cut the bullshit, Charles. Am I one of you or not?”  
He brushed his hair out of his face. “We do not know. Even with the combination of your knowledge and our technology, we simply couldn’t determine if you’re a mutant or someone bestowed with power in some other fashion.” He sighed, watching her eyes fall. “But, if you are seeking a home, you are more than welcome to make yours here. Personally, I would be honored to have you here as a teacher.”  
“Yes, you’ve all but bombarded me with job offers,” she muttered, plopping down in a chair in front of his desk.  
“My offer is sincere. You know that.”  
“But you know that S.H.I.E.L.D. hates my guts, so I don’t know why the hell you’d want to hire me.”  
Charles shrugged, leaning back. “The Xavier Institute could always use more experienced minds like yours.”  
“Is that the nice way of saying I’m old?” River quipped.  
“I could have said that better.”  
“Probably,” she said, smiling.  
Drumming his fingers on the table, Charles glanced at the students outside his study window. “I don’t have to read your mind to know that this is difficult for you. You came here, searching for a place to belong and now there is a strong possibility that you have not yet found it. This is a safe place for mutants, but that safety is always extended to you, should you ever need or desire it.” He looked back at River. “I’m not trying to convince you to stay, as much as we- as I- would appreciate it. I am making you a promise. That you are always welcome here.”  
“Charles.”  
“I really mean—”  
“No, something’s wrong.” River’s head tilted to one side as she listened for a sound only her telepathic mind could hear. She stood, her body rigid like a statue. “Put the school on lockdown. We’ve got rioters.”  
“Get Erik to help you!”  
River took off, running through the halls of the Xavier mansion. “Erik!” she yelled, projecting her voice with her mind. “Get your German ass down here!”  
A tall man sprinted down the stairs. “What’s going on?”  
“Rioters.” She stopped in front of him, staring at an unseen point in front of her. “Shit.”  
“What?”  
“They might have a bomb. Shit, there’s a bomb. Erik—”  
He grabbed her hand, pulling her out of whatever she was seeing. “Come on, then!” he growled. “How much time do we have?”  
“Five minutes. If I fly, I can get us there in one.”  
“Do it.”  
River knelt down as a dusty cloud began to surround her. Lightning flashed inside as the cloud grew darker. In one final flash of light, the cloud dissipated and River stood as two massive black wings rose from her shoulders. Her once wavy brown hair hung straight and matched her wings, and her clothes had turned into black armor. “Let’s go.”  
Erik took her hand and with one beat of her wings, they were off the ground. Within the minute, they had arrived at the gate of the Xavier Institute where the rioters were. River saw a shaggy man in sunglasses and baseball cap kneeling on the ground, assembling what she knew was the bomb. She landed herself and Erik just outside the gate, startling the crowd.  
Metal? River’s question reached Erik.  
Just enough. You’ve got crowd control, Erik answered as he reached out, dismantling the bomb with his powers. Only a second had passed since they landed.  
“Alright, everyone. You have until the count of three to get out of here. Anyone who doesn’t gets zapped to the other side of the universe.” She continued, despite Erik’s confused stare. “One…”  
“We’re not leaving until you do!” shouted a woman.  
“Yeah, you mutants are what’s wrong with this world!”  
“Two…”  
“She’s not really gonna do anything is she?”  
“Nah, man, she can’t do shit.”  
“One!” River snapped her fingers and a nearby tree disintegrated. The crowd panicked and ran off screaming. Before he could get away, she caught the would-be bomber in a force field. “Not you. You get to come with us.”

Merida landed in the East End of London, surrounded by large metal shipping containers and rusty eighteen wheelers. On the ground under her feet was an intricately patterned circle that had burned into the concrete. She dissolved her wings as she started pacing around the circle and opened her mind, projecting her thoughts as far as she could.  
“The fun thing about physics is,” she said aloud, “is that if you open a wormhole, it takes a long time to close, even if you used magic to open and close it. Space is healing itself because you just ripped a massive fucking hole in it to send someone to the other side of the universe.  
“So what does that mean?” she asked, sitting in the middle of the circle and staring up at the sky. “It means that I can talk to you. I can see you. Because my mind can reach through it to get to you.”  
What do you want?  
“Answers. Your world is making mine hell.”  
Why should I give you answers?  
“I don’t want them from you. I want them from Thor. And I’m a friend of Nick Fury’s, so he has to talk to me.”  
And if I do not grant you passage into Asgard?  
“I will tear through space myself. I really don’t need you.”  
One human cannot—  
Merida remained sitting as a bolt of lightning struck one of the stacked shipping containers, knocking it to the ground. “Sub-atomic telepathy is amazing, wouldn’t you agree?”  
My lord Thor demands you be brought before him.  
“Wonderful. Let’s get to it,” she said, standing.  
A light enveloped her and shot her through space, instantaneously bringing her into a golden dome. The walls were spinning, and in the center a large man in gilded armor drew a sword from pedestal. Another armored man with long, blond hair stood next to him, holding a massive hammer.  
“Thor, I presume?” Merida asked, an irreverent tone coloring her voice.  
“And in this realm, I am the prince of Asgard and you will address me as such,” he answered, storming down the stairs to stand in front of her. “And you will reveal yourself to me, woman.” His tall, muscled form towered over her slender frame.  
“I’ll do what now?”  
“Heimdall is the gatekeeper,” Thor said, pointing behind him at the other man. “He sees everything. He saw you arrive at the Bifrost site and he saw you as we battled the Dark Elves.”  
“So?”  
“You can change your appearance and you have black wings.”  
“I can manipulate matter telepathically at a sub-atomic level. It’s a side effect.”  
Thor sighed. “Do not play games with me, woman.”  
“I am not playing games, man,” she spat back. “You seem to think there’s something more to me—”  
“Yes, I think—”  
“I wasn’t finished,” Merida said, stepping up closer to Thor. “I came here to ask you questions, not the other way around. So I’m not telling you shit until you start talking.”  
“How dare you—”  
“Don’t care. That’s how. Now,” she continued, “the Infinity Stones. What are they and why are they bringing your wars on my planet?”  
Thor looked back at Heimdall, who nodded. “Come with me,” he said.

“This is our bomber?” Charles asked, rolling out from behind his desk.  
River stood with her arms crossed behind the bomber, who was seated in front of the desk. “Yeah. And he’s not talking.”  
“This,” Erik said, dropping a cardboard box filled with scraps of metal, “was the bomb.”  
Charles picked through the box. “You do realize that the lovely lady behind you works for the government?” he said to the man. “And also that we’re all mutants here, which puts you at a disadvantage.”  
“You don’t have an advantage,” the man said, leaning forward. “You’re an abomination unto God.”  
Charles shrugged. “Well, good thing I’m an atheist,” he joked. “Sorry, Erik.”  
“Not a problem. I don’t think God cares, anyway. You were born a mutant.”  
River smiled. “Take it from someone older than all three of you combined: mutants have been around since ancient Egypt. We’ve even found drawings of mutants on the walls of the pyramids.”  
“So not an abomination?” Charles asked.  
“Definitely not,” Erik and River said in unison.  
“Alright, then,” Charles agreed, turning to the man before him. “We’re just people, my friend. We don’t want any trouble. Why would you want to hurt us?” The man remained silent.  
“Or maybe,” River spoke up, “it wasn’t about hurting us.”  
“Ah, an excellent point, River,” Charles said, still maintaining eye contact with the man. “So if he wasn’t trying to hurt us, then what was he trying to do?”  
“Scare us, probably. When you scare the people you’re trying to oppress, they shut up. They stop fighting.”  
“Was that what you were trying to do, sir?” Charles asked the man. “Scare us into submission?”  
“If you goddamn mutants hadn’t been running around and blowing shit up—”  
“Okay,” River interrupted, spinning the chair around so that he faced her. “Listen, shitface, I’ve got bigger fish to fry. Commies to spy on, things like that. My friend wants to know who you are and if this is ever going to happen again. We’re both telepaths so we don’t even need an answer from you. But the Professor is a nice guy, and he doesn’t want to violate your privacy. I don’t give a flying fuck about your privacy. So if you don’t talk, I’m gonna start picking around in that fucked up head of yours. And I’m gonna make it hurt worse than Stalin personally taking a telephone pole and shoving it so far up your ass that you’re an electrocuted scarecrow. Got it?”  
The man’s eyes widened as he took a deep breath. “Johnny Davis. My name’s Johnny Davis. It was just that group of us… just a one time thing.”  
“River, is he lying?” Charles asked.  
“No,” she answered, staring at him intently. “It’s true. Every word of it.”  
“I thought you weren’t gonna read my mind!”  
River turned the chair back around. “I lied.”

Thor pushed open the doors to a massive, colorful library. A tree grew in the center, its branches stretching out across the room and scattering the sunlight. “The Infinity Stones are the basic elements of the universe,” he explained, walking over to a tall bookshelf and taking down a leather-bound volume. “Long ago, there were six singularities that were the foundation of all the worlds. They were concentrated into stones- the Infinity Stones, as they came to be called.”  
“Great,” Merida muttered. “So that’s what the Ether was?”  
“The Reality Stone,” he confirmed, flipping through the book.”  
“What are the other ones? What do they do?”  
“Here,” he pointed. “There’s the Space Stone, or the Tesseract.”  
“Which started the whole thing in New York, right?”  
“Right. And there are still four others that are out there.”  
“These are obviously worth fighting over. All that power, concentrated into one little thing…”  
Thor nodded, closing the book. “My grandfather saw to it that they were hidden and separated. Together, they could be used to tear apart entire galaxies or even create new life.”  
“Create life?”  
“How do you not know of this?” Thor asked, perplexed. “Surely someone of your origin and power must be aware of your history.”  
“My history?” Merida laughed. “I’m a mutant. A human with a biological defect.”  
He tilted his head, still confused. “You really do not know?”  
“About?”  
Thor sighed. “Before the stones were separated, my grandfather used them to create a new life form, a warrior race for the purposes of protecting the people of Asgard. They are immensely powerful and they often appear to be creating matter out of thin air. They can manipulate energy, read minds, even fly.”  
“So…?”  
“Show me your wings,” he said, standing back.  
“Take me to dinner first,” Merida shot back.  
“Sorry?”  
“Nothing. It’s an expression.” She looked around. “I suppose… but only if you tell me anything else I want to know about these stones. You’ve caused trouble on Earth twice now because of them.”  
“Very well,” Thor agreed, gesturing toward the doors.

River sat on the roof of the mansion, her feet dangling over the edge. She felt the soft breeze dancing through the air around her as she watched the students scurrying to their classes.  
“Mind if I join you?” Erik asked, standing behind her.  
She shrugged. “If you like.”  
Erik sat down next to her and leaned back, taking in the sun. “Mr. Davis has agreed to turn himself and his conspirators in. Charles will, of course, put in a good word for him.”  
“What a softie.”  
“I know,” Erik chuckled. “So, what’s wrong with you?”  
“He didn’t tell you.”  
“Obviously.”  
River sighed. “I’m probably not a mutant.”  
“Oh.”  
“Yeah.”  
He nodded. “That’s awful. Over two hundred years of—”  
“I know.”  
“I’m sorry.”  
River shrugged. “I’ve gone this long without knowing. I don’t think it will kill me to continue.”  
“But you should have a people,” he objected. “Has Charles offered you a position at the school, yet?”  
“I shouldn’t take it if I’m not one of you.”  
Erik laid a hand on her shoulder. “You are. You don’t know what you are? Then you’re one of us. End of story.”  
“Erik—”  
“You’re one of us. I know Charles feels the same way.”  
“Okay.”  
“Are we agreed?” he asked, smiling.  
“I guess so.”  
“Good.”

Thor led Merida outside into the garden. “Is there sufficient room?”  
“Depends. You want the whole show or just the wings?”  
“If the whole show is appropriate.”  
“Alright then,” Merida sighed, kneeling down and placing one hand on the ground. A cloud enveloped her as she transformed herself from inside the cloud, as she had so many times before. The cloud dissipated as she stood, revealing the pale, dark-haired woman.  
“That is…”  
“Strange. I know.”  
“No, I mean… no Valkyrie should be capable of doing that.”  
Merida’s wings lifted slightly as she tilted her head in confusion. “I’m searching your mind now and you have never seen these Valkyries you claim to know so much about.”  
“They rarely come to our aid anymore. The last anyone ever saw of them was in the war against Jotunheim.”  
“Why would they—”  
“My lord Thor!” a guard shouted, running into garden. “The All-Father requests your—” He came to halt upon seeing Merida and dropped to his knees. “My lady Valkyrie, I did not mean to interrupt. My sincerest apologies.”  
Merida rolled her eyes at Thor. “You can wipe that little smirk off your face.” She turned to the guard. “And you may tell the All-Father that Thor will see him when we are finished here.”  
“Yes, my lady!” He remained kneeling on the ground.  
She waived her hand. “Dismissed,” she ordered.  
Thor laughed as the guard scurried away. “The role of a Valkyrie suits you well.”  
“I know how to intimidate. One of the few perks of looking like this.”  
“I will say… none were described to me as the way you appear now. They are fierce, but beautiful.”  
Merida looked away. “They called me the Nightmare on Earth. I used to work as a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. Usually combat missions.”  
“Like Natasha Romanoff?”  
She sat on the edge of the garden balcony, her wings folding around her shoulders. “Something like that, yeah, but before her time.” She looked back up at Thor. “Your father is getting impatient. You should go to him.”  
“What about you?”  
“I’ll be reading up on these Infinity Stones.”  
“My father will want to speak with you.”  
“And he probably has thousands of years of pent up rage against Valkyries to take out on me if he thinks I’m one of them.”  
Thor nodded. “Understood,” he said. “I’ll rejoin you when I am able.”  
“You do that, big guy,” Merida muttered to herself.

“While Arthur Miller’s play is interesting, to say the least,” River lectured to a group of teenagers, “that’s not what actually happened—”  
“How do you know?” one boy spoke up from the back.  
“Well, for starters, I’m your teacher, so I should know. Secondly,” she smiled, “I was there.”  
“You don’t look old enough.”  
“I am old enough, thank you very much.”  
“Then how old are you?”  
River paused. “What year is it?”  
“1978.”  
“…I’m two hundred and ninety eight years old.”  
“When were you born?”  
River shrugged. “Records weren’t totally accurate back then, but I think January of 1680.”  
“You’re making it up,” a girl with red hair said.  
“Don’t believe me, ask the Professor.”  
“I can read your mind. I don’t need to ask him,” the girl answered.  
River smiled, perching herself on the empty desk in front of the girl. “Another telepath. Awesome. Tell me if I made this up.”  
The redhead scrunched her eyebrows, obviously still not used to her powers. “I see death,” she whispered. “So much was lost… your family, your friends…” A tear ran down her cheek.  
River waved her hand. “That’s enough. You get the idea.” She stood and walked up to the chalkboard, her back to the students. “This is a community. It’s small, but growing. If someone has been through something, you might want to believe them.  
“Our powers affect all of us differently,” she continued, turning to face the students again. “Mine keep me from dying. So I’ve seen a lot and I know a lot. And one thing I know for sure is that Arthur Miller was a bit of a pretentious prick,” she finished with a smile, earning a laugh from her students.

“Lady Valkyrie, the All-Father wishes to see you,” Thor announced, walking into the library.  
Merida remained still in her spot on the floor, surrounded by piles of books with her wings wrapped around her. “And if I don’t?” she asked without looking up from her book.  
“You’ve been here for several hours already. He expects that you see him.”  
“That doesn’t answer my question,” she said, turning the page.  
Thor sighed. “I don’t know what he’ll do, but he is furious that you refuse him.”  
“Tell him to get in line.”  
“My lady—”  
“I didn’t come here to see anyone or exchange pleasantries,” she snapped, looking up. “I came here to learn what I needed to know and get out.”  
He looked around at ancient volumes she had scattered throughout the room. “Half of these are forbidden.”  
Merida looked back up at the shelves, some sparkling with energy. “Really? Huh, I didn’t notice.”  
“Is nothing off limits to you?”  
She set her book off to the side. “That’s never how it feels,” she muttered, standing. “Now, your father wants to see me?”  
“It would seem so.”  
“Any reason I should listen to him, other than he’s the king?”  
“That it would establish some goodwill, perhaps?”  
“Goodwill?”  
“Yes.”  
Merida smiled. “You’re a good man, Thor. Don’t ever change.”  
He squinted, confused. “Thank you?”  
“You’re welcome. Now, let’s go see Odin.”  
“Follow me,” he said, gesturing out the door.  
“No need.” She snapped her fingers and Thor dropped to ground, unconscious.

A messenger sprinted into the throne room. “All-Father, the Light Elves send their sympathies and wish to assist in our efforts for rebuilding in Asgard.”  
Odin nodded. “Tell them we welcome their generosity in these dark times. Arrange for them to send their dignitaries so we may further discuss their involvement.”  
The messenger bowed. “Yes, my king.”  
“Any word on the Valkyrie?”  
“No, All-Father. She has remained stubborn.”  
Odin stood. “Does she not know to whom she answers—”  
The torches lighting the throne room blew out as the doors were forced open by a blast of air.  
“What is going on?” Odin shouted.  
A silhouette appeared in the doorway as lightning flashed in the sky. Wings became visible with a second flash of lightning. She strode forward, each step deliberate and commanding as every torch exploded into green flames with her passing.  
“I command you to stop!”  
Without even raising a hand, Merida pushed Odin back down on his throne with a force field, the radiating energy crackling throughout the room. “You dare to command me?” Her voice was low, but amplified by her power.  
“I am the All-Father and I have the power!”  
Merida continued to walk toward him. “Do not think you can control me, old man.” She applied more force to keep him down. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the messenger scurry toward the nearest exit. She pushed him into the wall, knocking him out.  
“You are a Valkyrie and I am your master. You will obey me,” Odin commanded despite the strain on his body.  
She nearly laughed. “I am no such thing. And you,” she declared, reaching the throne, “are nothing but an incompetent bastard, who brought your own wars and destruction to my planet.”  
Odin shouted, slamming his scepter to the floor and pushing back against Merida as she momentarily struggled to retain her balance. She raised both hands in front of her to concentrate her energy on keeping him down. Something was keeping her from reading his mind, which kept her from trusting her dominance. All she could sense were his emotions. Emotions that were strangely calm…  
He pushed back again and his scepter glowed with green energy. Merida shrieked as she felt pain ripple through her body. She pulled herself up into the air, summoning a bolt of lightning and attempting to strike at Odin. He deflected the bolt with the scepter and slammed it again into the floor. The same green energy spread across every corner of the room, travelling up the walls and around the ruined columns.  
“I’ll not surrender to my father’s creation, monster!”  
Merida attempted to strike him again. “I only seek justice for my homeworld!”  
“We are greater than Midguard!”  
“No!” Merida screamed, snuffing out the flames once again. She landed in front of Odin and caught him inside of a force field, which was now the only light in the room. “I am the Nightmare of Midguard. I protect my people. You and your sons have brought pain, destruction, and death upon us.” She compressed the field, forcing him back down. “You have done nothing to stop it.”  
“And you Valkyries rebelled! Frigga would not have been lost if you whores had not done so!”  
Merida paused. “I am no Valkyrie. I am a human of the realm of Midguard. A mutant. My involvement has nothing to do with your loss.”  
Another spasm of pain ripped through her body, this time knocking her to the ground. She tumbled down the stairs and defensively wrapped her wings around her small body.  
“Then explain how I have enough control over you to do that,” Odin said, once again standing tall. He caused another massive wave of pain, this one strong enough to render her immobile.  
“Father!” Thor called, running into the throne room with his hammer ready.  
“And where were you when this monster attacked me?”  
He stopped. “And she subdued me as well,” he admitted. “I did not think it of her. She was confrontational, but she was defending the Earth. I did not—”  
“You did not think, therefore your misjudgment nearly cost me my life.” Odin sighed as stepped down toward the prince. “My son, the Valkyries are not the beautiful creatures I spoke of when you were a boy. They are cunning and they stand against everything that Asgard stands for. You cannot trust them.”  
Thor swallowed and chose not to fight this battle. “Yes, Father.” He placed a hand on his father’s shoulder. “Are you alright?”  
Odin smiled. “Of course.”  
“And what of the Valkyrie?”  
The smile faded. “She will be punished accordingly like the rest.”

Charles was seated at his desk in his study when he heard a knock at the door. “Come in,” he called.  
River stepped forward hesitantly. “You asked to see me?”  
He looked up. “Ah, yes. River, have a seat.” He gestured to the chair in front of him.  
She shrugged and plopped into the chair. “What’s up?”  
“Well,” he exhaled, “it would seem that you scared a student.”  
“Which one?”  
“Jean Grey. Redheaded girl in your American literature class.”  
“The telepath?”  
He nodded.  
River sighed. “The kid said I was lying, so I let her see my memories.”  
“Of the witch trials?”  
“Those would be the ones.”  
Charles pursed his lips, choosing his words carefully. “River, I want you to as honest with the students as possible. There is much they could learn from you. But perhaps it would be best…”  
“… if I didn’t care the shit out of them?”  
“Yes, to put it more colorfully.”  
River held up her hands in surrender. “Fair enough. It won’t happen again.”  
“Glad to hear it,” he said, handing her a folder. “You’ll be covering Nathaniel Hawthorne next week. I imagine your insight into Puritan life will make things more interesting.”  
She smiled. “Yeah, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.”


End file.
